The Many Shades of Jack
by Sun-Tsu Toriden
Summary: A story about Jack's past, present and future in which she is wildly inappropriate and has a warped view of sex and relationships. Eventually, she will learn that people can be trusted and sex doesn't have to be empty, but she has to learn the hard lessons first. Implied Femshep/Liara, eventual Jack/Traynor. Rated M for mature content, lots of it.
1. All stories start somewhere

Age: 14

As the credits were transferred, Jack took one last look at the crew who had promised salvation, but had brought only ruin to her world. She'd fought so hard against everyone in her way to escape, only to be picked up by these human monsters. They'd taken her in and given her a bunk and food, even some medical attention. But the price they extracted, from her body, mind and soul was too high for the teenager to cope with.

Something had to break, and it had. It was her belief in the basic goodness of men. After the crew had had their fun with her, they'd travelled to the nearest planet in the Terminus and sold her into slavery. She'd hidden her biotic talents from them, too scared and too tired to try and fight anymore, but as soon as she was transferred, she vowed to get free.

That night, her new owner tried to get fresh with her, thinking that the act of the teenager with all the fight out of her was real. He found out to his dismay that not only was violence Jack's first resort, but with the torture she'd endured and her biotics, she was also exceedingly good at dispensing it.

After turning him into mush and stealing anything of value, she fled into the night on this forsaken planet, the last bright spark of hope driving her onwards.


	2. First Kiss

Age: 15

It had been almost a year since Jack had escaped her sentence as a slave. The first few days had been the hardest, trying to find her way in a city she didn't know, on a planet she had no clue about. But cities, no matter the planet, are all the same underneath the veneer. All it takes to find yourself in neighbourhoods where gangs rule the streets, where crime runs rampant and where no-one asks the hard questions is to walk down the wrong street, turn the wrong corners.

Or in Jack's case, the right ones.

She wasn't sure about her name, she'd never been called anything but Subject Zero her entire life. A life filled with torture, abuse and violence, which ironic given it's exactly how she'd escaped it. So she'd listened and found herself liking the name Jack. With her raggedly and loose-fitting clothes, the name Jack meant that it was hard for anyone to tell if she was male or female, and she liked that thought.

She'd stolen a few valuables and some credit chits from the man who thought he'd bought her. She was smart enough to realise that the chits themselves would be useless after a few days, once they discovered what was left of his body. But they lasted her long enough to get a feel for the streets, about how this city worked. She started walking down the streets, not knowing which ones were right or wrong, but somehow knew when she'd be where she was going.

She eventually found herself in a building complex only one broken window away from becoming a slum. A woman was sitting on something approaching a throne, if garbage sifters and bums decided on making their own kingdom. She asked Jack questions about who she was, what she'd done, where she was from, but Jack didn't have answers. She demanded to know what made Jack think she was worthy of joining her gang, and Jack reached into her pocket and drew out a piece of fine jewellery she had stolen from the dead man's apartment. This got a few appraising looks, but the queen didn't look impressed.

"How did you get this?" she asked, disbelieving.  
"I killed the man who owned it. He thought he was buying a slave. Turned out, he was buying his own death." Jack flared her biotics, her body outlined in bright blue fire. The queen said nothing, merely nodding with a shrewd and calculating look at Jack.

"Well then, welcome to our little company Jack. Milosh, Manara, see that she gets a room and some food." A boy and a girl, who looked in their late teens approached the biotic teenager, the boy reaching out to take her arm and lead her. Jack turned on him with a look of venom.  
"Don't touch me!" she shouted, turning to the girl and letter her lead her. Milosh looked back at the queen and shook his head, but she waved away his concern.

**SIX MONTHS LATER**

Jack had fitted in well with the gang. For the first time there were people who, while not exactly friendly, she wasn't being forced to fight and were not attacking her. There were a few of them she even liked, like the girl who'd lead her to a room originally. Her name was Manara, she was 18 and she'd been in the gang for a few years now. The two of them had developed a friendship, with Manara looking out for her against some of the boys, and girls, who tried to take advantage of her age and inexperience.

Mostly, the gang was about theft and a little bit of hacking and black market information. However, whenever they suspected a fight was going to happen, or were going out looking for one, Jack always tagged along. The gang had a few pistols between them, but Jack never needed them. With her biotics, there was never any need for her to carry weapons, she was one.

Manara had even gotten Jack to open up a little bit about why she hated boys so much.

"About a year ago, I escaped from a research facility," Jack confided in her friend one night. "They tortured me, made me fight, turned me into what I am." She held up a glowing hand in explanation. "After I escaped I was picked up by a passing freighter. I was starving, barely clothed and I had been shot. They took me in, patched me up, fed me and gave me some new clothes, though they were too big. There were about 6 of them, all men. I trusted them, and that was my mistake."

Her eyes turned cold and she choked a little on the words as she continued.  
"The first night, it was just the captain. He gave me something to drink, not sure if it was just booze or drugged as well, but everything went fuzzy. Next thing I know, he's got me under him, taking my virginity. He managed to say the right things to make me believe it was right. But the next night, it wasn't just him. After a few nights, all of the men had taken me, drugging me each time so I couldn't resist. By the time we'd reached this planet, they'd all had their fun, so they sold me to someone else. But I killed him, and found you guys, so here I am."

Manara listened to Jack's story and then hugged her close.  
"I won't ever do that to you Jack, I promise."

**ONE MONTH LATER**

The raid came close to dawn. The police had been getting word for months now that this gang was the top of the heap in this section of town, and finally had enough evidence to arrest them. Jack was already awake when the first boots were kicking down the door. She ran back to the room she had been sharing with Manara, shaking her awake and then throwing some clothes at the girl. Manara jerked awake quickly when she heard the shouts, pulling on her clothes quickly as Jack stuffed what few valuable possessions she had into a backpack. Once Manara had her boots on, Jack grabbed her by the arm and jumped out the window which backed onto the alley, using her biotics to slow the two of them down enough that the landing on the building across the narrow space was merely jarring.

The two of them ran away from the old gang hideout, until they had come to the edge of the spaceport. Jack handed Manara the omni-tool she had managed to grab, since she was one of the better hacker's the gang had.  
"Get us some plausible identities and a ticket out of here Manara."  
"I'm not sure I can Jack. I've never done anything so complex."  
"Then learn fast, because we need to be out of this system in an hour, or we land in jail right next to the rest of them. I won't go back to a cell Manara, I'd rather die."  
"Alright Jack, I'll try."

Manara spent 30 minutes booking passage on a small shuttle, and another 20 trying to make convincing identities. The spaceport agent waved them through with barely a glance, since the asari had been on shift for ten hours already, and was just about to clock off. The shuttle attendant looked a little more wary, but there was nothing obviously wrong with the identity passes or the tickets she was handed, so she showed them to their small room.

An hour later the shuttle hit the relay, sending them towards their destination. Jack and Manara sat down on the single bed the room had, both of them trying to form words to express how they felt. There was no doubt in either one's mind that there was something between them, but it was hard to put a finger on. Jack was the first to find her voice.

"Manara, you did a good job today. You're the reason I'm still free." She slowly put her smaller hand on top of the older girl's. Manara turned her hand around and laced their fingers together. Jack didn't look her in the face, feeling her cheeks warming at the touch of another's hand held in hers.  
"No Jack, thank you. You could have gotten out by yourself, but you came back for me. You made sure I was alright. I owe you everything, so I want to show you how thankful I am." With this, she tilted Jack's chin up with her free hand until they were looking into each other's eyes.

Both of them just looked, barely aware that their faces were edging ever closer together. It wasn't until their noses were almost touching that they both closed their eyes and felt the first soft, gentle contact of the other's lips. They broke the kiss, and both of them saw something welcoming, wanting in the other's eyes. They fell back onto the bed, kissing passionately, hands roaming and exploring their newfound partner's body.

As their passion eventually subsided, Manara held Jack's body to her own, enjoying the feeling of her breasts against the younger girl's back. Jack just smiled and a single tear escaped onto the pillow at the discovery that sex and making love were two very different things.


	3. First Bitten

**Age 16:**

Things between Jack and Manara had been good, but they never did recapture the spark that had led them to their first session. After a few months they realised that they were too young and inexperienced to try and date, and decided that they would just be friends. They did know how to make enough money to get by, and even make themselves comfortable in their new digs.

After a few months of various grifts, a few smash and grabs, Manara met someone in a bar and brought him home. Jack didn't care, she and Manara only had sex occasionally anyway, and separate rooms meant they had privacy when they wanted it. They had loud and passionate sex the first night, and Jack was surprised when he was still around when she woke up near noon.  
"So, who are you?" she asked gruffly.  
"Name's Xarc."  
"Jack."  
"So, what's your story?"

"All you need to know is that I'm a biotic, Manara's friend, and I don't like you right now." He handed her some toast he had just made. "Alright, so I dislike you a little less now. Doesn't mean we're friends."  
"Point taken," he said with a nod. "So, what's your attitude to crime then?"  
"If someone else has what I want, and I can take it, I do. Simple as that. Manara helps me to pick my targets."  
"That's cool. You two looking to expand your operation? I know some pretty soft targets that would make a fat payoff."  
"Could be interesting," Jack replied, munching on her toast.

* * *

"So, we're all cool on the plan?" asked Xarc.  
"Peachy, now let's get on with it, it's breezy out here." Jack shivered a little bit.  
"Well maybe if you wore something a little more covering, you wouldn't have that problem."  
"But then I wouldn't be the little ray of sunshine in your life," she quipped back at him.  
"And we wouldn't want that now, would we?"

Manara was crouched down, omni-tool flaring as she dealt with the security systems.  
"If you two could stop bickering like an old married couple, could we please get in out of the wind?" The three of them entered the now unlocked door and closed it behind them. They were in the back room of a jewellers, the three of them looking through the boxes and cases of cut and uncut stones. Xarc knew more about this kind of deal, so he was able to point them to the most valuable pieces. While Manara disabled the electronic security on the cases, Jack used her biotics to lift the stones out, leaving no evidence for nosey police to look for.

Hours later, after successfully converting the stones into hard currency through a fence Xarc knew of, the three of them were at their place, getting thoroughly buzzed. Between the banter and the lusty looks being exchanged between all three of them, what happened next was almost a foregone conclusion.

The sex the three of them had in the large bed was fantastic, long and extremely pleasurable for all parties involved, and they eventually collapsed in mutual exhaustion, wide smiles on their faces.

* * *

It had gone well like that for a while. The three of them would pull off jobs they would never have been able to without each other, enjoying massive profits for relatively little work and risk. Occasionally they would have another threesome, but more often than not it was just Manara and Xarc, while Jack went off on her own. She'd go find someone else to fuck, or just drink and dance the night away. But tonight, everything changed.

Jack had gone off on her own again after a particularly big score. They'd robbed an armoured car, relieving the driver of his heavy burden after knocking him unconscious. Xarc and Jack wanted to off him, but Manara was insistent, so he lived. They didn't need to convert much of it through their fence, and Jack wasn't feeling particularly in the mood. Something about it had bothered her for some reason. Maybe it was the short look of anger on Xarc's face when Manara had disagreed with him. Whatever it was, she just felt the need to be alone for a while.

She came back in the small hours and went straight to her room, kicking off her boots and falling onto the mattress in a dishevelled heap. Normally she didn't particularly care about any and all sounds coming from Manara and Xarc's room, but tonight it was different. It wasn't the loud moaning or euphoric post-coital whispering, it was a softly spoken argument. Normally that wouldn't have bothered Jack either, but her earlier feeling about the look made her curious. She walked over to the window and leaned out, able to hear what was being said clearer.

"-what are you talking about Xarc?" asked Manara.  
"I'm talking about redistributing the payoff next time. We won't need her for this job," came the stern, and slightly slurred response.  
"Jack's my best friend Xarc, I won't agree to this."  
"Who said I'm going to leave you a choice?" Then there was some muffled footsteps and whispering, but Jack wasn't able to figure it out. She did hear a gasp, probably Manara, but she didn't know what it was in response to. Then she heard her friend again.  
"A-alright Xarc, we'll do it your way. Jack won't get a cut of the next job."

Jack bit her hand to stop the sound of her sob, closing the window and heading back inside. She couldn't understand it; her only friend was setting her up! After a few hours of tears, a steely look of determination crossed Jack's face. If her friend was going to do this to her, then she would get in first. She stalked silently to the kitchen and grabbed out a sharp knife, hefting the blade in her hands to feel the weight. This wouldn't be the first time she'd killed, but it would be the most personal.

She stalked silently across the floor to the door to couple's room, checking for the sounds of sleep. Hearing nothing but breathing, Jack pushed it open and slipped inside, hiding the brightness of the blade in her shadow. She padded over to Xarc, who was laying on his back, an arm hanging over the side. She walked right up to him, wondering what it would feel like, before she pressed a hand over his mouth and ran the blade quickly over his exposed neck. His eyes opened in shock, but by the time he realised what had been done, lack of blood and air were already killing him. Jack just watched the light in his eyes die, feeling the familiar warm feeling she got from her conditioning early in life.

As he lay there, still and bleeding, Jack moved over to Manara, on the other side of the bed and facing the wall. The warm feeling was gone now, and Jack felt a momentary twinge of guilt for what she was about to do. She moved the other girl's arm out of her way, forgetting how light a sleeper she was. Manara's eyes opened and she saw jack, red-bladed knife in her hand.  
"Jack, wait -" was all she had time to say before Jack stabbed her in the chest. "I'm... sorry..." she gasped with her dying breath. Jack didn't feel anything, seeing her hand still holding the knife sticking out from the older girl's chest.

Then an overwhelming need to run overcame her. She went to her room and gathered as many of her things as she could carry, before opening the door and running out into the night air, tears streaming down her face. _Why Manara, why did you betray me like that?_ her only repeating thought.


End file.
